THE near-extinct Malayan tiger can't seem to get a break from human interference.
Humans have ravaged its habitat, killed off its prey and worse, poached the predator for body parts.
The beasts don't even have the luxury of leaving behind paw tracks, a natural sign of "marking" their territory, without villagers becoming anxious, and making calls for immediate intervention by the Wildlife and National Parks Department.
Recently, people at the Jeli-Gerik border reported tiger tracks surrounding several Orang Asli settlements, without actually sighting the big cats.
However, they felt the tigers' presence: circumstantial evidence stemming from the killing of two male villagers in separate incidents, and the disappearance of pet dogs and cats, and wild boar.
Wildlife activists are pressing for the reintroduction of food sources like deer, understanding that tiger encroachment means only one thing: scarcity of prey has disrupted the food chain and shaken the ecosystem.
Here's an intermediate solution: corral a herd of livestock at the edge of the jungle as "targeted" prey for the tigers, under the supervision of armed wildlife rangers.
The rangers can keep a lookout for poachers while scientists can study the tiger's behaviour.
It's a win-win situation: the tiger's hunger is satiated and the village safety is assured.
In the meantime, the Malayan tiger, numbering only 200 in the peninsula from a historic high of 3,000, is fast reaching an extinction.
The same goes for other predators: at the rate of human development, violent confrontations are inevitable. To circumvent clashes, here's an initiative that will take some doing: relocate the tigers to an exclusive preserve, probably a special spot in a national park.
There's no guarantee that the cats will survive the treacherous relocation.
Since land-grabbing, industrialisation, agriculture and housing take precedence over wildlife welfare, entrepreneurs of such unstoppable development must be mandated to put up a sizeable tiger relocation fund. Every scientific methodology has to be followed to manage the transition.
Regrettably, tiger survival has to rely on state politicians indifferent to animal protection. Still, it's either this new-form safari or endure more future killings, humans and wildlife alike.
This way, future generations may still witness a "live" animal spectacle but it will come to this: if the forced relocation fails, there's only one place these majestic tigers can be eternally preserved: a digital zoo.
Unless humans rein in their insatiable desire to slash and burn through virgin jungles, the available choices to save the Malayan tiger are hazardous.